METS SUFFER
Loup authoring an Amazin’ season Little hope for playoffs after 5th straight setback
Aaron Loup is having one of the best seasons by a Mets reliever in franchise history. And it’s not particularly close. No Mets reliever in the past five decades – yes, you read that right – has come close to putting up numbers like Loup has in 2021 for the Amazin’s. The left-hander’s 1.09 ERA in 49.2 innings out of the pen is the lowest relief ERA in Mets history, and that’s not even including his two scoreless starts totaling three innings. Loup has allowed just six earned runs in 52.2 innings across 61 games this year.
Tug McGraw and Jesse Orosco are next lowest on the Mets reliever leaderboard, posting 1.47 ERAs in 1969 and 1983, respectively. McGraw allowed 13 earned runs in 79.2 innings, whereas Orosco permitted 18 earned runs in 110 innings. Next up on that list is Bob Apodaca, who recorded a 1.49 ERA in 105 innings in 1975 for the Mets.
Loup, with his Busch Light beer can loyally affixed to his postgame podium, has become a fan-favorite with his dominant performances this season. And, as the long baseball season winds down, Loup’s outings have only gotten better.
He has allowed just two earned runs over his last 46 games, posting a 0.44 ERA in that span. In 30 games following the All-Star break, he has recorded a 0.36 ERA with seven walks and 19 strikeouts. Loup has held left-handed hitters to a .169 batting average this year, surrendering only two extra-base hits.
Loup’s 1.09 ERA in relief appearances is the lowest in the league among relievers with at least 40 innings pitched. His incredible season is another reason the Mets’ free fall out of first place has stung. Had the club held on to its position, the 1-2 punch of Loup and Edwin Diaz in the postseason would be one to avoid for opposing teams.
Alas, Mets fans are left wondering whether Loup can repeat his powerful year in 2022. The Mets signed Loup to a one-year, $3 million deal in January and they would be mindless to let him walk away after the best season of his 10-year career. Mets owner Steve Cohen should anchor his strongest arm of the 2021 season, pay the happy-go-lucky, country-music loving southpaw whatever he demands, and reinforce the relievers around Loup to build an even stronger, less taxed bullpen for next year.
ONE-RUN BLUNDERS
The Mets have lost 15 of their last 17 one-run games coming into Saturday. They have a 28-32 record in one-run games overall this season. The outcomes don’t get much better when they score just a few runs, either. When the Mets score three or fewer runs they are 13-60 this year. But when they score four or more, they’re 59-16.
The offense has routinely failed to collect the clutch at-bat or record the timely hit. Those tight losses have made the Mets believe they are “in it” every game. What it should tell them is that they’re consistent, just consistent in all the wrong ways.
BRAVES LEAVING DOOR AJAR… FOR PHILLIES
The Mets lost to the Phillies on Friday and the Braves lost to the Giants in extra innings, which allowed Philadelphia to creep just two games behind the first-place Braves. As has been the case all year, no team is running away with the NL East title. Atlanta has lost five of its last 10 games. The Phillies have lost six of their last 10. And the Mets, well, they’re not factoring into the division race right now.
Any more losses the Mets suffer to the Phillies this weekend as part of their three-game series at Citi Field and Luis Rojas’ club is just gifting their rival a good, late run to the top.
“It’s hard,” Rojas said of losing to the Phillies in a pennant race. “When you say control what you can control, it’s turning to the next page and going to the next day when we still have a chance. They’re tough. Every time a loss happens as we narrow down to the end of the season, it’s hard. It’s tough to take.”
Michael Conforto came up to bat in the sixth inning of the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the Phillies in a big moment. The Mets had just scored their first run off Phillies All-Star starter Aaron Nola to cut their deficit in half. Pete Alonso, representing the final batter Nola would face on Saturday, drew a two-out walk to bring up Conforto with the home team trailing by one run.
As a graphic on the Citi Field jumbotron commanded the crowd to get loud, and most of the 33,442 fans in attendance obliged,
Phillies manager Joe
Girardi went with left-hander Jose Alvarado to relieve Nola. Conforto entered the at-bat hitting .333 (2-for6) with two RBI and a walk lifetime against Alvarado. But those were not the numbers that mattered to Girardi and the Phillies. It was Conforto’s splits against left-handers this season – he’s hitting .185 with 34 strikeouts in 108 at-bats – that made the ensuing result predictable.
Conforto struck out against Alvarado on three pitches. The big moment was lost on the Mets, a fading club on a five-game losing streak following Saturday night’s loss.
There was no energy.
There was no fight. The emotions in the Mets dugout remained the same before and after Conforto’s inning-ending strikeout. Even two innings later, after Brandon Nimmo homered to bring the Mets within two runs of the Phillies, the Amazin’s in the dugout hardly moved besides a few obligatory claps. Collapsing and content.
The Mets (72-77) have 13 games to significantly alter their destiny after dropping seven games behind the final wild card spot. They must go 10-3 the rest of the way to have any shot at postseason contention.
“Playoffs are the main goal and then your record after that doesn’t really matter because you didn’t make the playoffs,” said Nimmo, in regard to the team’s sub-.500 mark. “I’m still not going to go out every day and just like, give it away. I’m still going to go out there and try to win every day. That’s just how I’m wired. But it is kind of, you either make the playoffs or the record doesn’t really matter.”
The offense-less Mets continued their no-breaks schedule against tough pitching. They deeply struggled against Nola until the sixth inning. Besides Pete Alonso, who went 2-for2 against the Phillies right-hander, and Jeff McNeil, who notched the other lone hit, the rest of the Mets lineup went 0-for-15 with nine strikeouts through five innings vs. Nola.
Nimmo, one of the few Mets consistently producing in the lineup, logged a one-out triple off Nola in the sixth and Francisco Lindor promptly drove him in on an RBI groundout for the Mets’ first run of the game. The small burst of effort knocked Nola from his start after 5.2 innings, but Conforto’s inning-ending strikeout killed the threat.
“We want to win, that’s why we’re here,” said manager Luis Rojas. “Everything that got us to here – the offseason, spring training, all the things that we’ve been through this year – it’s for the playoffs. There’s nothing more to it. The distance to the clinching spot is what we have to [overcome], that’s our goal, that’s our mission. We can’t think of nothing more than that.
“The chances are diminishing, but there are chances. So we can’t hang our heads just yet. We have to keep moving forward. We have to keep pushing. Once again, we were resilient tonight.”
Carlos Carrasco’s first-inning woes also continued. The veteran right-hander has allowed 16 earned runs and seven home runs in the opening frame this season. On Saturday night, it was Jean Segura who was the thorn in Carrasco’s side. Segura homered twice off the Mets’ starter, once in the first and again in the third, while Carrasco kept the rest of the Phillies lineup off the board.
Carrasco was pulled after six innings and 82 pitches. Rojas and company rolled out Brad Hand for the third time in four days to start the seventh. Hand quickly allowed the Phillies to extend their lead, opening the inning with back-to-back doubles. Moments later, Trevor May surrendered a two-run double to NL MVP-candidate Bryce Harper.
“In the last at-bat, I got jammed a little bit,” Carrasco said of hurting his thumb in his fifth inning at-bat. “So in the next inning, I didn’t feel the ball pretty well. That’s what took me out from the game.”